Environmental issues abound in the oil and gas industry. A recurring concern for all stakeholders involved in this industry is the issue of spill containment. Containment basins have been developed as safeguards in the oil and gas industry between storage/operations and the environment. Current regulations in the industry require that storage operations provide secondary fluid containment because of environmental considerations.
Several types of containment basins have been developed and are being marketed in the industry. Typically, these containment basins consist of a plurality of wall sections arranged in a closed perimeter encircling an oil/gas storage unit. The wall sections are placed on an leveled surface and held in place by post, supports legs, tension cables, or the like. The interior section is typically covered with an impermeable plastic cover where the thickness varies. The plastic cover is then covered by sand, gravel or the like. The following prior art represents some of these devices.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,053,666 discloses an extruded containment barrier panel (5) for use in forming a containment barrier wall about a waste material storage or disposal site is disclosed. The containment barrier panel has an elongate body panel (10) with a top end (11), a spaced bottom end (12), and a first side edge (14) and a spaced parallel second side edge (15) extending from the top end to the bottom end of the body panel. A C-shaped female connecting member (17) is formed along the first side edge of the body panel, and a complimentary male connecting member (22) is formed along the second side edge of the body panel, both of which extend the length of the body panel. The male connecting member is sized and shaped to be slidably received within a second one of the female connecting members for forming an interlocked edge-standing relationship with a second one of the barrier panels, and both of the male and female connecting members may be rotated with respect to one another when one of the containment barrier panels is being joined to a second adjacent one of the containment barrier panels to form a containment barrier wall. The male connecting member has least two elongate seal members (32, 33, 34) extending the length thereof, and constructed and arranged to be placed into sealing engagement with the female connecting member of the second barrier panel such that a fluid-tight seal will be formed between adjacent ones of the barrier panels for preventing the migration of groundwater and/or underground gases from out or into the waste material storage or burial site.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,917,543 A teaches wall systems which employ a plurality of individual panels formed of extruded polymeric material joined in edge-to-edge relation including wale members which are vertically offset and interlocked at end portions thereof with adjacent wale members. The wall systems include connector elements for joining and interlocking the adjacent panel edges, and panels are disclosed, each having a continuous convex surface between their opposite side edges and strengthening ribs formed on a concave surface disposed opposite the convex surface thereof. A revetment system is disclosed in which a pair of wall sections are positioned in facing spaced-apart relation and joined by tie bolts extending through the wale members, to receive concrete therebetween.
Despite the known devices in the prior art, there still exists a need for strong yet easier to install containment basin which provide similar or better containment performance but allow for substantially decreased installation costs. The inventor has developed a novel modular panel system for use in containment basin which has eliminated the need/requirement for posts, support legs or the like in the installation process.